Drawing and Painting People: The Essential Guide

Everything you need to know to paint faces and figures.

Eight professional artists share proven techniques and time-tested advice for painting everyone's favorite subject—people. Favorite color mixes, tips on lighting your subject, strategies for creative cropping, advice for getting the eyes "just right"—it's all here, along with other valuable lessons and expert know-how to make the people in your artwork expressive, engaging and "real."

This is the very best instruction culled from North Light's most popular books on the subject, making it the definitive guide on drawing and painting people. Features comprehensive coverage of:

• Traditional half- and full-length portraits as well as people in landscape settings.
• A range of popular media—including oil, acrylic, watercolor and colored pencil—along with a rundown on tools and materials for each.
• Portraying various ages and ethnicities.
• Color—from specific color mixes for achieving a realistic range of skin tones and hair colors, to color harmonies for dynamic portraits.
• Essential keys to stronger designs.
• Making the most of value, light, shading, line, cast shadows and more.

The entire process—from taking reference photos to secrets for capturing the essence of your subject—is outlined with numerous illustrations and step-by-step examples, along with 15 complete painting demonstrations. This reference is loaded with straightforward, hands-on instruction that the novice can pick up to get started, while more advanced artists will find sound methods and expert tips for taking their work to the next level.